Tears for all the neglect

THE EDITOR: On Tuesday I took a drive through Port of Spain, hungry to see my cityscape after being indoors for so long.

There I was, excited for our nation's children returning to school, some for the very first time entering the gates, the halls, the classrooms of higher education. Were they anxious or optimistic?

I tried my best to put to the back of my mind the image last weekend of beautiful little Krystal Laloon, crushed and killed in a freak accident when an unstable gate fell on her and her cousin in her grandmother's yard.

By then I was driving past St Mary's College towards St Joseph's Convent when it all came crashing down yet again – the image shoved in my face.

I pulled over in horror and looked, really looked, at the sight of a padlocked gate at Lord Harris Square. I next noted the overflowing bin and the garbage strewn inside, the general decay and shameful neglect wherever my eyes paused.

I guess I took my blinkers off there and then.

I wondered what sights greeted the many children across the nation on Monday.

And wept for what could have been.

KATHRYN STOLLMEYER WIGHT

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